Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America

2003

Drama / Horror

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 66%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 66% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.2/10 10 552 552

Plot summary

Three narratives ("Cutting Moments," "Home" and "Prologue") combine to create a shocking trilogy of modern American life, a portrait drawn with brushstrokes of hidden violence and disturbing cruelty. Directed by Douglas Buck, this unflinching film reveals what lies behind the drawn curtains of so-called "ordinary" households.

Director

Top cast

Larry Fessenden as Jimmy Doyle
David Thornton as Walker
Alex Splendore as Policeman
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
952.85 MB
1280*766
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 6
1.73 GB
1804*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 10

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by 2 / 10

I Need Counseling After Seeing This

Reviewed by 7 / 10

Slow-moving film but also pretty good.

Family Portaits shows us the horror of dysfunctional families......but in a oh-so skewed, unbelievable look. The flick contains three shorts which all revolve around family life and the super dark side that sometimes is apart of it.The first one Cutting Moments revolved around a insane wife who's been hardcore ignored by her hubby, and a secret side-plot of molestation. With some funny over-acting and some nice direction, plus some nice bloody scenes, it was easily my favorite of the three.The second, Home, is again close-knit in the same way Cutting Moments was with a messed up family, but it instead deals with how a past family life can affect future ones. This one was entertaining enough and again delivered some dark humor, but also made me realize how the rest of Family Portraits will play out. Slowly.The third one, I just didn't care for that much. Prologue, surrounds a sad-tale of a young girl who had some seriously bad luck, and ends up confronting her demons. It's a cool idea, but the short felt way too long, and probably was compared to the previous two. It was just very tedious in it's delivery and made this guy bored and ultimately not care for what would transpire later on.Overall though, Family Portraits was a very cool indie horror/serious drama flick that should appeal to many horror fans who dig low-budget, slow-burn flicks.
Reviewed by 7 / 10

The things we think but do not do.

I find it both refreshing and horrifying that a director has chosen as the subject of his horrific discussion with the audience to be the American family. Few directors really play with three elements that are plainly displayed here in detail and used so effectively. One, he uses pauses and silence to emphasize tension. Very little music at all was played and it was soft and gentle, almost non existent, the director wanted us to pay attention more on the action and less on the score. Two, the characters he has written are drab and lonely, and we see their plight like we might see any neighbor who argues in the night, or wears makeup to cover a bruise, but here we see into their home and we see how they deal with their loneliness and anger. What was at first hidden from us is now plainly in front of our faces, and what at first seems perfectly logical then turns into a bloodbath of terrible fantasies turned real. Three, that with each successive film the emotional quotient goes up, and we are left more exhausted by what we have seen then horrified. This kind of horror is in my opinion is the greatest exercise in the genre. Horror is just that, horror. To be horrified by something is simply to have a natural reaction of fear or disgust, and most horror films today never want to push the limit, never want to look at what really scares people in their daily lives. We have settled for the man in the mask for so long we have forgotten that there are far more frightening things that lurk behind the doors of the neighborhoods we live in, and behind the eyes of the people we know.
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